BATTLE HEIGHTS

1. Following are the reminiscences by Doris Gray Fenton, of her days at Battle
2. Heights school, both as pupil and teacher.
3.  
4. The school was built in 1914 in the standard pattern of the day, with
5. white siding, three narrow windows on each of the north and south walls,
6. a tiny vestibule at the entrance, and a flag pole never known to fly a flag
7. at the other end. The interior was lined with beaverboard and V-joint
8. wainscoting. There was, of course, no insulation and when the wind blew,
9. it could be felt any place you put your hand on the V-joint. A large heater
10. with a black metal jacket occupied one corner. Water spilled around the
11. water cooler at the back remained as ice from Christmas until spring. The
12. desks must have been the finest for their day. They were free-moving,
13. with drawers under the seats, and tops sliding forward and back so that
14. they could be adjusted up or down by a series of bolts. On the coldest days,
15. children were allowed to sit on the top with their feet on the seats. One
16. of the smallest desks had a four-inch extension of the legs to fit one of
17. the first students, a very tall girl who came from Fabyan. The desk
18. remained the same, though the girl had moved away long ago. It was a real
19. menace – someone was always upsetting it. Several children came from
20. Fabyan until a school was built there.
21.  
22. I distinctly remember my first day at school. My sister, who wasn’t old
23. enough to attend, was sent too. We each had a slate and slate pencil. We
24. wore pink voile dresses with ruffled skirts, wide white sashes and white
25. stockings. The total enrolment was twelve, and we were the only girls.
26. After school we visited at the neighbours, who had a wonderful herd of
27. Shetland ponies. What a fine time we had riding until Mother came for us
28. with the buggy. Imagine the little pink dresses!
29.  
30. The school yard was nice, with a hill half prairie and half tall poplars.
31. Flowers we called tall buttercups grew under a clump of big diamond
32. willows. I haven’t seen any of these flowers for years. There were also
33. crocuses, tiny buttercups and blue-eyed grass. While I attended Battle
34. Heights we had no purchased equipment except for a soccer ball one of the
35. teachers bought us. Some of our classmates had gone to school in Britain,
36. so they were better at kicking the ball than the rest of us. We played
37. soccer all winter. One of the fathers made good baseballs with twine, and
38. bats from dried poplar. We used our winter mitts for catching.
39. Anti-I-Over was a favorite game because we could all play at once. We
40. had a fine time until the ball rolled behind the chimney.
41.  
42. The children in the community seldom got far from home in those days so
43. we were not exposed to the usual run of childhood diseases, except for
44. whooping cough which one family brought from Wainwright. One infant
45. girl died in the resulting epidemic.
46.  
47. In the middle thirties I came to teach at Battle Heights. All my
48. classmates were gone but most of the same families were represented.
49. School enrolment had tripled, so more land had been added to the school
50. yard. The ball diamond had been moved to the new ground, saving many
51. windows. There were fastballs, and proper bats, and games were played
52. according to regulation rules. Other school teams were invited to play.
53. The school division held a track and field meet at Wainwright. I had no
54. experience coaching and the children had never taken part. Enthusiasm
55. made up for expertise and we were second school in total points, beaten
56. only by Melbrae, whose teacher for several years was a fine athlete.
57. Three of our girls won medals for most points in their age group.
58.  
59. In winter, most children came to school in sleighs. A few rode, and the
60. horses were kept in the school barn. In summer, nearly everyone rode
61. bareback. At least fifteen horses were loose in the school yard at one
62. time. It was almost a rodeo at home-time catching all of them.
63. Horsemanship was acquired by osmosis in those days. We grew up knowing
64. the right things to do.
65.  
66. The school was the social centre of the community. Each year there was a
67. Christmas concert, with a tree, gifts, treats, lunch and a dance. The date
68. was chosen carefully so as not to conflict with those of nearby schools.
69.  
70. Every other Friday after New Year’s until spring, all the desks went out in
71. the snow to make room for card playing and a dance. This made school
72. projects almost impossible in winter since there were no storage
73. cupboards. The children had a post office at Valentine’s Day and Easter
74. and exchanged homemade cards. Some years they had Junior Red Cross,
75. held meetings, and collected small sums of money to be sent away. A red
76. letter day was the annual hike to the river hills, almost three miles.
77.  
78. Classes were cancelled for the day and we took a picnic lunch. It was
79. exhausting, but educational, as many plants grew there that did not grow
80. on the farms. I still time the coming out of the poplar leaves by the dates
81. we used to go on those school hikes. Then came the school picnic on the
82. last day, a great time with freedom ahead. The parents came, there were
83. races and wonderful food eaten in the big bluff across the road where the
84. pink wintergreen blooms pushed up through the leaf mold.
85.  
86. Battle Heights school closed in 1950. Now there were gravelled roads and
87. snowplows. Children rode the bus to Wainwright. The bluff with the
88. wintergreen has long been a cultivated field, and so has the school yard.
89. The building has been moved north of Irma and converted into a farm home.
90. All that’s left is a scraggly row of caraganas where one side of the Paige
91. wire fence stood.
92.  
93. In July, 1939 we had a reunion for all those who had attended over the
94. years. It was held at the Passchendale Community Centre. Over one
95. hundred people, from the west coast to Eastern Ontario, attended. Five
96. former teachers were present. We had a wonderful time for two days,
97. with a horse-shoe tournament, a dance and an outdoor church service led
98. by one of our own ordained people. The man who had bought the school
99. gave us the old wooden sign with the school’s name and number. We had it
100. hung in the Wainwright museum with pictures of the reunion and a
101. suitable inscription.
102.  
103. Looking back, it was a wonderful time and place to grow up. Even children
104. could go anywhere without fear, be it daylight or dark.

Battle Heights
by Doris Gray Fenton

136-138